CONTENT /
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister (1940-45, 1951-55) in his speech to the meeting in the House of Lords on October 28th, 1943 said “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” requesting the House of Commons, bombed out in May 1941 during the World War II, be reconstructed exactly as before. He stated that the old Chamber with rectangular configuration shaped the two-party parliamentary system, the essence of the British democracy. This is a profound and powerful statement that reveals how the environment we have created constantly shapes and affects us and how we perceive things.
Since 2020, the pandemic has made more apparent the flexibility or rigidity, not only spatial, of the structures that organize the world we inhabit, the times of adaptation and the human predisposition to change. On the other hand, it has also revealed the increasingly recurring technological lifesaver, based on the need for networked, remote work without physical limitations—a clear invitation to reflect on how we architects can position ourselves to unfold the future. University of Universities, a pioneering example of adaptation, becomes the ideal setting for this reflection.
In With a new mind Daniel H. Pink (2008) speaks of the end of the “Knowledge Age” and the beginning of a new era, the “Conceptual Age”, where the future belongs to a type of person with a global and creative vision. That seeks transcendence instead of people with logical, linear and computational capabilities, typical of the information age. In the middle of an intermittent pandemic, we will consider whether, as Churchill did with the old camera after World War II, we cling to the replica of the already known models that have shown their deficiencies, or we begin to anticipate what the new ones may be like. Physicalities, spatialities and social relationships that will “shape” the future, and consequently us, or rather, our alter-egos: the avatars. It is time to enter The Metaverse.
The Metaverse responds to the growing incursions and dependence on the virtual world, where users can interact socially and financially using an avatar. Interactivity, incorporeality and continuity are essential for its operation. The Metaverse concept is not new but originates in 1992 in the novel Snow Crash by American writer Neal Stephenson. In 2018, director Steven Spielberg popularized it with the film Ready Player One, based on the 2011 Ernest Cline novel of the same name. Different companies such as Epic Games, Roblox or Facebook are leading and developing their Metaverse concept in which it will converge the physical or tangible with the digital. These companies will not constitute the Metaverse by themselves. However, they are already the first “architects” and inhabitants in it, and they are anticipating a paradigm shift for many professions and markets, architecture being one of them.
As the futurist Matthew Ball points out in A Framework for the Metaverse, what happens in this space will become part of our culture. “Building things with friends within virtual worlds will become common, and major events within the most popular virtual worlds will become pop culture news stories.”
AIMS /
- Learn from our own experiences by taking an introspective journey to the food-space relationship.
- Propose new ways of socialization around virtual/hyperreal food experiences.
- Looking around us and highlighting the physical formats that are falling into disuse or being replaced by digital formats that reinforce our increasing dependence on the virtual world: digital money, documentation, art, workplaces, education, entertainment, shopping, socializing.
- Conceptualize the future and propose a new professional framework for architects and designers.
METHOD /
Among the many transformations and changes in different sectors that The Metaverse proposes, this workshop invites us to focus on a critical economic and social engine in most cultures. We will talk about food and its power to socialize. We will first look at it by analyzing the traditional role it has been playing in our lives as a binding agent of social and family relationships, as a builder of memories, as a stimulator of meanings. After looking at the past, we will now reflect on the relationship that food establishes with the spaces where it is enjoyed. More specifically, we will imagine those gastronomic spaces of the virtual future.
Day 0: Launch Part 1 and 2
PART 1. FOOD-SPACE-FOOD (INDIVIDUAL WORK)
Describe a space and a food/meal from your culture that both are intimately and uniquely intertwined, creating a distinctive symbiosis as food-space relationship. Your chosen space gives the food a unique dimension, just as the food gives the space an exceptional grade. Tell us, using ppt format, how the food builds the space and vice versa.
Bonus reflection, any finding in other species?
PART 2. ARCHEOLOGY OF THE VIRTUAL GASTRONOMIC FUTURE (TEAMWORK 2 STUDENTS)
After extensive research, groups will present, using ppt format, the most relevant findings of existing experiences around food, or that can relate to food, in virtual environments. Reflect on how this “Meta-reality” can affect our relationship with food. Conclude with a summary table/chart/diagram of the most relevant features of the findings.
Day 1: Presentation Part 1 and 2. Launch Part 3.
PART 3. 2043 (TEAMWORK 4 STUDENTS)
We are in 2043, a hundred years after Churchill’s mythical quote “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”. The students propose a space, menu and eating experience in The Metaverse for virtual social gatherings around food. The following will be designed and presented (ppt):
- The virtual space: a transformable geometry and atmosphere
- The menu: 1 starter + 1 main course + 1 dessert showing their cutlery and eating ritual
- The eating experience in 4 interactions: avatar-avatar, avatar-food, avatar-space, space-food
Do not miss including Mr. Churchill’s avatar in the performance.
Important note: The student’s mindset should be wholly detached from reality. A dining experience in The Metaverse should benefit from unprecedented, exceptional and fictional conditions.
Along with the ppt presentation, students will submit an A4 landscape manifest with the ten key features of the dining project. Each feature page includes the feature name, descriptive short sentence and image.
Day 2: Final presentation and jury
SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop
- Friday, February 11th 14:00 (CET)
Workshop 02a Presentation & Launch (30 minutes)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83777914345
- Tuesday, February 15th 10:00-11:00 (CET)
Review & Progress
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84853602418
- Friday, February 18th 10:30-14:00 (CET)
PART 1 & 2 PRESENTATIONS
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87018723206
- Tuesday, February 22th 10:00-11:00 (CET)
Review & Progress
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86718328382
- Friday, February 25th 10:30-14:00 (CET)
PART 3 PRESENTATIONS AND FINAL CRITICS
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82256887417
EVALUATION /
The following qualities will be positively valued:
- Risk
- Creativity
- Understanding of the task
- Submission of all the required elements
Grades will be based on each university’s requirements.
American University in Dubai (UAE) / Jose Carrillo (jcarrillo@aud.edu)
GUEST JURORS /
Dr. Juan Carlos Arboleya
Physical Biochemist. Expert in improving sensory and nutritional properties of foodstuffs
Professor and Researcher at the Basque Culinary Center (University of Mondragón, Spain)
Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, published by Elsevier
José de la Rosa Morón
Gastronomic Scientist and Food Alchemist Lab
Fermentedfreelance
Dr. Georges Kachaamy
Architect, expert in Future & Virtual Environments
Professor of Architecture, Director of the Center for SAAD Research, Innovation and Design (CRID) at AUD.
Jashan Sippy
Food-Architect. Expert in sustainable food future
Sugar and Space | Food Design Nation | Online School of Food Design
José Antonio Antoli Salva
Architect, Enterpreneur
3DSC | Virtual You (VIU) | Savory Spain
Dr. Francesca Zampollo
Food Design Thinking Consultant, Teacher, Facilitator, Researcher
Chief of Inspiration at Online School of Food Design
Editor of International Journal of Food Design
Founder of International Food Design Society
Huffington Post Blogger
Sergi Freixes
Historian, food designer and graphic designer.
Coordinator and professor of the Master’s Degree in Food Design at IED Kunsthal Bilbao, and the postgraduate course in Food Event Design at IED Barcelona
Partner of the Food Design company Biscuits Barcelona
Studio Freixes Pla
Caroline Hobkinson
Anthropologist
Experiential event expert investigating the interrelationships between Tech, Food, Art and the Senses
Collaborations with Unilever, Disney, Barilla, Magnum, Selfridges, Bang & Olufsen, Kensington Palace
BIBLIOGRAPHY /
The Metaverse Primer. (2022). Mattewball. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.matthewball.vc/all/category/The+Metaverse+Primer
Metaverse Ecosystem Infographic. (2022). Https://Www.Newzoo.Com. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://newzoo.com/insights/infographics/metaverse-ecosystem-infographic/?utm_campaign=GGMR%202021&utm_content=170823463&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-1710460
Nudake. (2022). Https://Www.Instagram.Com/. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/nu_dake/
Bompasandparr. (2022). Http://Bompasandparr.Com/. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from http://bompasandparr.com/projects
This is Mold. (2022). Https://Thisismold.Com/. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://thisismold.com/
Alien Worlds. (2020). Https://Www.Netflix.Com/. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.netflix.com/ae-en/title/80221410
Ortega, L., & Puente, M. (2017). Total Designer: Authorship in the Architecture of the Postdigital Age (English ed.). Actar.
Pink, D. H. (2006). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Riverhead Books.